The Swiss federal government has approved funding for six new National Centres of Competence in Research (NCCRs). NCCR Genesis, one of the six Centres, is led by ETH Zurich in collaboration with the University of Lausanne.
How did life on Earth begin? Are we alone in the universe, or is it teeming with life? What sparks the imagination of many is also a serious scientific question and the starting point of the National Centre of Competence in Research ‘Genesis’. It is led by ETH physicist and Nobel Laureate Didier Queloz.
The NCCR ‘Genesis’ brings together more than 100 scientists from all parts of the country, bridging the gap between biology, chemistry, astrophysics, and earth and planetary sciences. The approach is novel: the origin of life is understood not as a sudden coincidence, but as a gradual process. The researchers are investigating how planetary conditions allow functional biological systems to form from inanimate building blocks, eventually leading to the emergence of living organisms.
The researchers’ goal is to understand this transition. Comparisons with other potentially habitable planets should reveal which biochemical processes and interactions between the environment and organisms make life possible – and why such a vast diversity has developed specifically on Earth. A key question concerns this interaction: which environmental conditions allow for evolution, and how do living organisms in turn reshape their planets?
“The next ten years are likely to be crucial for better understanding how the first living cells emerged from inanimate matter. It would be wonderful if we could gain these important insights here in Switzerland.”
Prof. Didier Queloz, director of COPL and NCCR Genesis
To find biosignatures – traces of life – in space, the researchers are combining various methods. These include chemical laboratory experiments that replicate the geological conditions of the early Earth, as well as high-performance telescopes and new remote sensing technologies to detect potentially inhabited exoplanets. “The next ten years are likely to be crucial for better understanding how the first living cells emerged from inanimate matter,” says Didier Queloz, who has led the Centre for Origin and Prevalence of Life (COPL) at ETH Zurich since 2022. “It would be wonderful if we could gain these important insights here in Switzerland.” The new findings on these existential questions are also expected to enrich the dialogue with the public.